


Hunt for Treasures Lost

by the_toadlet



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, M/M, Sharing a Bed, Treasure Hunting, absolutely based on the true crime finale sldkfjsdl, sdlfkjs shane gets slightly wounded near the end but !! everyone survives, stevens kinda an asshole im sorry its only for the drama
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-12
Updated: 2018-09-11
Packaged: 2019-07-11 06:52:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15966989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_toadlet/pseuds/the_toadlet
Summary: Ryan Bergara, the esteemed professor who was one of the top in his field, was really not expecting to be recruited b the one and only Shane Madej, a reckless treasure hunter who used to be one of the best and brightest with his partner Steven Lim, but is now only scraping the bottom of the barrel. Challenged by Steven, he sets out to find a treasure(and finds love along the way ;))))





	Hunt for Treasures Lost

Professor Ryan Steven Bergara snapped his pointer against the whiteboard in the front of his lecture hall, watching his students impassively. He could hear the frantic scribbling of pencils through the room, but his eyes were fixed on the lanky man sitting in the very back row. His hat was pulled low over his face, but Ryan could see the glint of his eye through the shadow. He’d never been to Ryan’s class before, and he wasn’t taking any notes, just leaned back in his chair against the wall with long, ridiculous legs stretched out in front of him. Pencils stilled, and Ryan flicked his attention away from the mysterious man in the back to focus on the students staring intently at him. 

“Who can tell me what this tool is, and why it’s important?” Ryan said, choosing to ignore the stranger in favour of teaching the syllabus. Several of his students raised their hands, randing from hesitant to immediate. He pointed at a student at random, letting the familiar wave of teaching wash past him and wipe away the curiosity about his mystery student.  He nodded along to the answer, tapping the pointer at key parts and watching the small class scribble some more. 

The rest of the lesson passed smoothly, Ryan answering questions and explaining things as precisely as he could. He folded his silver pointer closed with a click, smiling slightly at the students as they filed out. He tossed the small instrument onto his desk, sliding into his chair with a huff. He clicked his red pen a few times, sliding his thick glasses over his nose and preparing to settle in for a good few hours of writing notes and being disappointed in his students. He pulled the heap of quizzes from earlier this week towards him, dropping the first one in front of him. Ryan practically leaped out of his skin, however, when a lightly tanned hand slammed down in the middle of the paper. 

“Professor!” The cheerful voice said, and Ryan looked up-  _ up, up, and up- _ to meet the eyes of the mystery man from the back of his classroom. Ryan leaned back in his chair in annoyance, pulling his glasses back off his face and staring at the man in front of him.

“Can I help you, Mr. Madej?” Ryan said, annoyance colouring his voice. The world renowned archeologist in front of him grinned widely and flopped down in the student chair in front of Ryan’s desk.

“I have a business proposition for ya,” Shane Madej said, stretching his god-awful long legs out under Ryan’s desk. “The one and only Steven Lim challenged me to find a treasure before he did, and your expertise would be very helpful to me,” 

\---

_ One of the most well known gossip stories in the archeological community was the rise and fall of Madej and Lim, business partners that were often rumoured to be more than just that. They were a perfect duo, Lim with the know-how and topographical knowledge to find the most obscure of antiquities from the smallest of details, and Madej with the ability to slither past any and all diversions and traps. They had dominated the community for a hot second, and them something happened. Madej fell from fame, trying to cut losses as Lim continued to gain notoriety, and it was a bit of a blemish on the whole of archeology to watch the two most successful archeologists drop from fame. Madej was still successful, of course, but without his counterpart he was practically scraping the barrel with the blandest finds and going through companions as fast as he could in an attempt to gain back some sort of respect. Pathetic, really. _

\---

Ryan arched an eyebrow. 

“And why would I help you, sir?” He said quietly, folding his glasses neatly and placing them on his desk. Madej’s smile turned into a smirk. 

“You can keep the treasure and a quarter of the reward if you help me,” He said, leaning an elbow on Ryan’s desk. “30 mil if we find this bad boy before Lim,” He said, pulling a folded paper out of a small pocket on his vest. He smoothed it out and laid it in front of Ryan, smiling innocently while Ryan’s eyes shot open. 

“You’re kidding,” He said breathlessly, picking up the paper almost reverently. It was old paper, slightly frayed around the edges and turning brown in the creases, and the slightly smudged drawing portrayed nothing more than a simple statue, possibly Mayan in style, with crudely drawn jems inset into its face. 

“Never,” Madej drawled. Ryan peered over the paper, mouth gaping slightly. Madej winked and grinned, standing gracefully and reaching out a hand. “Are you in?”

Ryan leaned back in his chair, letting out a tense breath through his teeth. 

“I’m not shaking your hand until we discuss it in more detail, but for the time being? Yes,” He said. Madej laughed, the sound ringing through the lecture hall. 

“Excellent. I’ll let you get back you your grading, eh? I’ll be back, Professor,” He said with another wink, sauntering out of the hall. Ryan watched the tall archeologist leave, his eyes still wide as he glanced back down at the long sought after relic drawn on the paper before him.

Maybe working with Madej, the brash archeologist who dropped out of college but still managed to have a streak of finds nearly as long as his leg, would be worth having the Cabeza de Dios in his hands for even a fleeting moment. The Head of God, who would have guessed little ole’ Ryan Bergara might have a chance to find it. He leaned further back in his chair, lacing his fingers behind his head and letting out a sigh. Dust motes drifted through sunbeams from the long windows down the hall, and Ryan let out a long whistle as he watched them. Riches beyond his wildest dreams, but he’d have to work with  _ Madej _ , the roguishly handsome man who went off without any rules and rarely listened to reason. 

And he’d do it, too. Ryan was quite sure of that.

\---

_ “It was never about the treasure, you idiot!” Shane screamed, scrubbing a hand over his eyes to rid himself of the tears freely cascading down his face. Steven stood across from him, rigid. He looked frozen, but a curl of disgust marred his handsome features as he motioned to the wreckage in front of him. _

_ “Did you think this was all a game? That I was in it for fun? It  _ _ was _ _ a game, but I’m here to win,” Steven said quietly, anger radiating from every inch of his body. Shane grit his teeth.  _

_ “Fuck you, man,” He said, peering through his sweaty fringe. “You got greedy. That’s what this is, you got greedy and thought betraying me was just fine, didn’t you!” His voice had turned into a shout instead of the level tone he was aiming for, and Steven scoffed.  _

_ “Betrayed you? Hardly,” He said. “If anyone was betrayed, it was me, you coward. You just wanted to play in the woods like a kid with a plastic shovel, but this is the real deal, Madej. Grow up,” Steven said, throwing the muddied map at Shane before turning and stalking back into the small village they were camped outside of. Shane stared at the folded paper laying before him, before a hoarse noise escaped his throat and he dropped to his knees.  _

\---

The next day, Ryan was slightly disappointed that the tall form of Madej wasn’t huddled in the back of his classroom once more. He continued his class as usual, however, explaining the most basic tools needed for those serious about the craft and answering questions that he was, like, 90% certain he had answered while explaining it. He missed when Madej slipped through the door with coffee in hand, intent on explaining what the vast array of brushes were for to a clueless freshman lad. Ryan pursed his lips into a stiff smile when the boy let out a loud “Oh!’ and proceeded to repeat what Ryan just said back to him, almost word for word. Ryan murmured something affirmative and moved on, spending the rest of the class like that until his students filed out of the room, a few pausing to ask him quiet questions before wandering to their next classes. 

“Coffee?” A deep voice said from behind Ryan, who almost leapt out of his skin. 

“Dammit, Madej! Almost scared me to death!” Ryan said, whipping around to glare at the comically tall man, who had a smug grin on his face and a paper coffee cup in either hand. 

“Sorry, ‘Gara.” He said happily, handing one of the cups to the short man.  Ryan looked at it skeptically. 

“What’s this?” 

“Drink some and find out,” Shane said, spinning on one heel to plonk back in the student chair. 

“I’m not sure I trust your coffee choices for me, Madej,” Ryan said, glancing between the cup and the man. Madej shrugged. 

“If you’re going to help me find this treasure, you’re gonna have to start trusting me at some point,” He said mildly, taking a sip of his own coffee in an irritatingly superior way. Ryan snorted and finally took a sip of the drink, frowning in surprise. 

“It’s sweet,” He said, staring at the cup. Madej grinned. 

“It sure is, baby,” He said with a wink. Ryan rolled his eyes. 

“Right. I think we should get started on this, honestly,” Ryan muttered, gently seting his coffee down on his desk and sitting opposite of Madej, who was digging through the variety of pockets on his vest. 

“I have a chunk of map here somewhere,” Madej said, humming slightly as he pulled out random knick knacks and bandaids out of pockets and dumped them on Ryan’s desk. Ryan arched an eyebrow and slowly pushed a heap of graded papers out of the way of Madej’s ever growing heap of stuff. 

“Okay? Where did you get this map?” Ryan said, eyeing the sketchy pile of things, which were shedding dirt all over his desk. Madej froze for a brief second.

“Uh, Lim. Lim gave it to me a long time ago,” He said with the faintest hint of smile. Ryan nodded slowly. 

“And you’re trusting this to be a real map?” Ryan said, taking another sip of his stupidly sweet drink. Madej huffed.

“Yeah, of course. This was before our big old,” He paused, mulling over a good word choice, letting out a triumphant noise as he pulled out a small piece of paper, mud flaking off of it as he unfolded it. “Falling out! That’s a good way to put it. Anyway, I think it’s somewhere in a forest.” He handed the small scrap of paper to Ryan, who brushed the old dirt off of it with distaste and picked it up. Madej was right, the tiny drawings surrounding the Cabeza de Dios looked an awful lot like trees. A black line trailed past the small icons, and Ryan rubbed his thumb against the worn paper thoughtfully. 

“Those look like they could be mountains,” He said thoughtfully, setting the paper back down and pointing at a series of thin lines. Madej nodded, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth.

“Lim, uh, he always used a map. One of the ones with mountains or whatever on it,” Madej said, waving a hand absently. Ryan snorted.

“A topographical map?”

“Yeah, that,” Madej said, still staring at the paper. Ryan pushed himself back from the desk slightly and pulled open one of the bottom drawers of his desk, snagging a small, folded map from the very back of the drawer. He unfolded it, revealing a fairly basic map of the americas. He scooched the figment of map to the side, laying the more modern map across the desk. 

“So, I’m thinking, because of its design, it probably was made around here-ish,” Ryan said, motioning to somewhere near Central America. Madej nodded, sliding the small map chunk over to where Ryan was pointing. 

“Maybe there?” He asked, pointing to a chunk with come mountains and a river similar to the one on the map. 

“Maybe,” Ryan said, leaning closer to the map and frowning. He reached out blindly, catching Madej’s wrist and using it to drag the small bit of old map closer. Madej made a surprised sound, but went along with it, letting his arm be manipulated into what Ryan deemed an appropriate position. “But look, it matches up almost exactly right there,” He said, looking back up from the map to meet Madej’s gaze. 

Madej looked fondly amused, his wrist still clutched in Ryan’s hand. Ryan flushed beet red and let it go, continuing his train of thought and trying to pretend it didn’t happen. Ryan may have hated Madej, but he was still a damn attractive man. And Ryan was quite useless around those, but he managed to get his point across anyway.

\---

_ “Shane, Shane, wake up,” Steven said, excitement bright in his voice as he prodded Shane’s side. Shane made a dissatisfied noise, cracking open an eye to stare at Steven.  _

_ “Yeah, babe?” He said, his voice rough from sleep. Steven giggled and held up a wrinkled paper, sketched lines covering the presumably ancient paper. Shane opened his other in in surprise, holding out a hand. Steven handed it over, still practically buzzing in excitement.  _

_ “It’s a map to the biggest score of our lives,” Steven said, giving up on his position crouched next to the cot and instead pacing around the tent. Shane struggled to sit up, hunching over the paper, eyes wide.  _

_ “How in god’s name did you get this?” Shane said, looking up from the map. His eyes were still wide, but a smile was starting to crawl over his features. Steven hesitated slightly. _

_ “I bought it off a local dude,” He said finally, smile looking a little more forced. Shane tilted his head, smile starting to droop.  _

_ “With what money, Steven? We only had enough for food this trip,” Shane said, starting to sound more worried and less excited. Steven’s smile vanished, and he looked remarkably nervous.  _

_ “It wasn’t with money,” He said, biting his lip slightly. Shane swung his legs out of the cot, frowning.  _

_ “What was it with, then?” He asked. The map was forgotten in that moment, crumpled in Shane’s hand. Steven drew in a breath. _

_ “It doesn’t matter. We have the map now, that’s all that’s important!” Steven said, sounding forced. He had a fake-cheerful smile on his face, his back against the tent flaps, hands fidgeting nervously.  _

_ “It does matter though, Steven,” Shane said quietly, rising to his full height and staring down his lover. Steven had been acquiring things like maps and instructions without money like this for a while now, and Shane was done being lead along like a child. He held up the map, tilting it towards Steven with a look of annoyance. _

_ A sneer curled across Steven’s face as he reached out and snatched the map from Shane’s hand. He held it up to eye level, shaking it slightly. _

_ “You want to know what I did for this? You really want to know? I fucked the man. I let him use me like a damn sex toy, because I wanted this for me. For us, Shane,” Steven snarled, turning and marching out of the tent. Shane stood in shocked silence for a brief moment, before rage washed over him. He grabbed Stevens bag and threw it out, grabbing everything that belonged to him and throwing it out, one after another. Tears were pouring down his face at that point, from the sheer amount of emotions rushing through him, the main one being pure sorrow. He flung himself out of the tent into the damp air, chest heaving.  _

_ “It was never about the treasure, you idiot!” He screamed, throat scratching from the emotion poured into it. It didn’t matter, it never had, not really.  _

\---

Ryan woke the next morning to find himself still in his office, a crick in his neck and a gently snoring Madej across from him. Maps covered his desk, and he could hear the faint murmurs of students outside the locked door. He cursed quietly, shoving maps aside to pick up the stack of papers. He hesitated for a beat before shaking Madej awake. Madej, to his credit, merely stretched, yawned, and glanced at his watch. 

“I can’t just explain you being in here to my students,” Ryan muttered angrily, running a hand through his messy hair and gritting his teeth. “What do you have to do today?”

“Nothing important, why?” Madej said, his voice still deep and rough-  _ and unbelievably sexy, but Ryan absolutely wasn’t thinking that, no- _ from sleep. Ryan huffed.

“Wanna be a guest speaker for my classes? Real life archeologist, because lord knows I’m not enough for these punks anymore,” Ryan said, voice turning slightly bitter near the end. Shane snorted.

“Sure, why not?” He said, rolling his shoulders back and slinking to his feet like a very large cat. Ryan nodded absently, glancing at the locked door and the clock on his wall. 

“Thanks,” He said, before unlocking the door with a plastic grin. “Good morning, class! We have a guest speaker today, Mr. Shane Madej! Isn’t that fun?” Someone in the back of the group whooped as they filed into the lecture hall, and Shane giggled before waving to the class. 

“Good morning, everybody!” He said mildly, a soft smile turning his sloth-like features up. Ryan settled back in his chair, time seeming to rush past him as he watched the man at the front of his classroom laugh and interact with the students in such a positive way. Maybe Madej wasn’t as bad as he seemed.

Ryan would just have to wait and find out, it seemed. 


End file.
